Start Dreamfeed at 6 months or just forget it?

[melbatarseh]

I've never done a dreamfeed, tried a few times, but I was so afraid I'd wake her up, that I just gave up. 

She's ready for solids, and will be starting them soon.  BW Solves All Your Problems says to stop DF at 7 or 8 months, and it takes about 1 month to wean off of it.  So it could take me 2 or 3 weeks just to get her to take the DF, and see any effect from it, then I'll spend 4 weeks weaning her off of it!?  This sounds crazy.  Plus I'll be starting solids at the same time as starting DF.

The reason I'm considering starting DF is because her night-time waking increased at around 5 months, and is getting worse.  I need to get her straightened out, but I'm wondering if maybe I should just get her on solids and skip the DF at this point.

[momtoelise]

It doesn't seem like it makes sense to me either to start the df now if you've never done it.  I've been doing it from the start with my dd & am in the process of eliminating it now.  I think at this point she doesn't necessarily need it anymore - it's just habit.

 I guess if I were you, I'd try cluster feeding later in the day instead.  Hopefully that will help until solids are established.  Good luck!

[GraceKellysmom]

Nightwakings do increase for a lot of babies around 5 months, but it usually isn't all about food, although they want to nurse to go back to sleep because it soothes them. Plus, they sometimes aren't feeding enough during the day (so darn busy!) so they are hungry at night.

Try to offer her enough feeds during the day. (Usually every 3-4 hrs at this age) She may need to eat once or twice a night. Solids don't usually solve that.

If she's waking more often, you have to find another way to soothe her unless you want to nurse her back to sleep every time. Tracy does offer other solutions for nightwakings (which are often developmental or teething related wakings at this age) which can be very successful for most babies.

[melbatarseh]

I do think that my lo may have been not getting enough to eat during the day because she was often too distracted to get a good feed (the world is so interesting!).  I've been working hard to get enough food into her during the day, and I think it's helping reduce night waking.

But I thought that starting solids at 6 mo WAS supposed to reduce night waking from hunger.  Isn't that why Tracy says to drop the DF when solids are firmly established?

What are Tracy's techniques for putting them back to sleep?  PU/PD is the only one I can think of after my reading.  Is that what you meant?

[julieb]

My goodness!  I could have written your post word for word 5 months ago!  :lol:

Prior to starting solids at 6.5 months, I was doubling up feeds every 2 hours and he was taking a good 60 oz a day (could take 12 oz from a bottle in ONE sitting!!).  He still had that one milk feed during the night and often woke at other times (though I didn't feed him).  I was becoming harried and haggard!!

After one week of having three solid meals at day, he started sleeping through (added one meal a week until we were up to three)!  It was the easiest thing ever!  I could hardly believe it.  After we started the three meals, I noticed his night feed dropped to half the time almost immediately.  That's how I got the clue.  On normal nights, if he wakes before a certain time, I won't feed him and put him back to sleep another way (then feed him the next timehe wakes).  So I got the courage one night to just put him back to sleep without feeding.  He didn't fight me.  He woke an hour later and I did it again.  Again, he went back to sleep with no issue and slept until morning!  The next night, he completely slept through.  We went for a week of him waking or sleeping through every other night, but I still didn't feed him.  After that week, he's been sleeping through since, shortly after he turned 7 months old.

One trick I've learned since, once you're up to three meals, give cereal (or later, protien) during dinner.  It seems to last longer through the night in their tummies than veggies or fruit.

Does your DD ever wake other times and you don't feed her?  How do you soothe her back to sleep then?  For my DS, he has a luvie and sucks his thumb.  It was just a matter of finding his luvie in the crib and resettling him in his favorite position as fast as possible (before he woke too much).

[melbatarseh]

Oh you bring hope to my weary soul!!  Thank you!

I do sometimes put her back to sleep by just giving her a pacifier and sitting with her a minute and she doesn't complain.  If it's been 5 or 6 hours since she ate, then I  generally go ahead and feed her instead of trying to put her back to sleep with the paci.  But I wondered if this is confusing to her....as in, does she wonder why sometimes she gets to nurse and sometimes she doesn't?

I've also noticed that if I get in there as soon as I know she's awake (and not just murmuring in her sleep) I have a better chance of getting her back to sleep (whether through nursing or pacifier).  I had been trying to hold back like Tracy suggests and let her put herself back to sleep, but it never works, and then I'm up longer and maybe have to get up repeatedly to get her asleep.

So here's hoping that things improve with solids!

[julieb]

Yes, there's definitely hope!!  At least with the solids, you can start to figure out if she's waking out of habit or not if she starts nursing shorter at night.

I was exactly the same with DS and I'd automatically feed him if it had been X number of hours.  I think this added to the habit.  I really don't the paci or nursing really confuses them, I think they just find themselves awake and think, "Hey, I can either go back to sleep myself, or mom may come in here and give me a little nip!"  I genuinely think Asher needed the extra feed during the night (otherwise he'd be up at the crack of dawn starving), but once he was getting more substantial food during the day in the way of solids and I stopped offering at night, he figured what's the point of waking all the way up if he's not getting anything?

Sounds like you have a good alternative to nursing in place.  So now you just need to be patient a little longer and see how she does with those solids.  Once you think she's getting enough during the day, try to hold her off one night as long as you can.  Doesn't hurt to try!  She'll let you know if she's REALLY starving and can't make it through.

Good luck and hang in there!! 

Forgot to add, all babies are different in their waking and ability to go back to sleep.  Tracy just offers a guide.  You really need to experiement and find out what works for you and your DD.  If getting in there ASAP works better, than do it, it's okay!